Cardiovascular disease and its manifestations, including coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure and cardiac hypertrophy, is the number one cause of death globally. In response to pathological stress, such as injury to the heart or myocardial infarction, cardiac fibroblasts and extracellular matrix proteins accumulate disproportionately and excessively to form scar tissue. This process is known as myocardial fibrosis. Because fibrotic scar tissue is not contractile and fails to contribute to cardiac function, myocardial fibrosis can result in mechanical stiffness, diminished cardiac function, contractile dysfunction, cardiac hypertrophy, and arrhythmias.
Heart tissue has a limited capacity for regeneration or self-renewal. Thus, repopulation of the injured or diseased heart with new, functional cardiomyocytes remains a daunting challenge. As such, there is a pressing need in the field of cardiology to develop new approaches for the regeneration of damaged or diseased cardiac tissue.